COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS -- No. 23 Texas A&M has been, politely, a bad-shooting basketball team for the past several years. But, for one night at least, they bucked that trend with authority.
Zhuric Phelps scored 16 with seven assists while Andersson Garcia scored 15 points and added nine rebounds as the Aggies shot a scorching 55% from the field -- 46% from three-point range -- as A&M blasted Lamar 97-71 at Reed Arena Monday evening. Four Aggies scored at least 13 points in a balanced offensive performance.
"I thought we were all on the same page," coach Buzz Williams said.
The Aggies started slowly, trailing 5-0 before Phelps hit a corner three with 17:37 left in the first half. That would be the start of a flood of three-pointers, with Garcia and Wade Taylor (15 points) each hitting threes to give A&M a 9-7 lead with four minutes gone. They would not trail again.
Sporting a new, streamlined hairdo, Garcia went on a personal offensive explosion, making a pair of free throws, another three-pointer and a layup to stretch the lead to 16-7.
"I was feeling great," he said. "My mentality is that this is my last year and I've got to take it one game at a time. This is my last second home game and I want to take advantage of every second."
Williams was impressed with Garcia's performance.
"I thought that was the best Andy's been (offensively)," he said. "He's a much more confident shooter than he's ever been because of the work he's put in."
Then Aggies would end up with a 14-0 scoring run, then, after giving up three points, went on a 12-2 run with threes from Solomon Washington (7 points), C.J. Wilcher (9 points) and Hayden Hefner (6 points).
A few minutes later, Wilcher would hit a second three from the corner after a ball fake sent a charging Lamar defender into the first row of seats; Wilcher calmly took one dribble, moved a step to the left and swished his attempt to put A&M up 33-22.
The Aggies closed the half on a 19-4 run as Lamar's defense began to crumble and A&M started getting more baskets close to the rim. Henry Coleman (13 points, seven rebounds) scored A&M's last six points of the half as the Aggies went to the locker room up 50-29. At intermission, the Aggies had more three-pointers (10) than baskets inside the arc (seven) as they shot 59% from three-point range.
A&M cooled off from beyond the arc after halftime, but they made up for it by consistently getting to the basket. Lamar would only make one shot from the field over the first five minutes, 36 seconds of the second half as the Aggies pushed their lead to 38 at 71-33 with an 18-4 run. Phelps scored eight points during the run, including two layups and a dunk.
"Sometimes he looks like he's on roller skates, he's so fast," Williams said of Phelps. "Not only does he impact our team ... he's going to make the game easier for the other guys on the floor."
After that, it became a layup drill, with the Aggies scoring the remainder of their points close to the basket or at the free throw line after Wilcher made his third three with 15:25 left in the game. A&M scored 24 points on layups and hit 65.6% of their 31 free throws.
"That's our plan for every game -- how can we get going downhill?" Coleman said.
The Aggies' shot at triple digits went by the wayside with 42 seconds remaining when Manny Obaseki (8 points) was called for basket interference and had his own dunk waved off.
The Aggies had 20 assists in the game, with Phelps' seven leading the way. Taylor, Obaseki and Garcia each had three each. A&M scored 36 points in the paint and got 46 points from its bench.
The win was 350th of Williams' career, which started at New Orleans and continued at Marquette and Virginia Tech before coming back to A&M as the head coach.
"I didn't say anything, but I was aware. But I'm blessed and living a dream way bigger than any that I ever thought," he said.
The news of the milestone did, indeed, surprise his players.
"That's good; hopefully we can get him a lot more," Garcia said when told of the milestone.